Mountains As Props Of Human Destiny

For Parshat VaAyra, Bereishit 18:1-22:24

Mountains make two appearances in our Parsha. The first appearance occurs when Lot and family must flee the imminent destruction of Sodom. A heavenly savior implores Lot, ‘Head for the mountain! Save yourselves!’ Lot just can’t do it, ‘It’s too far; I’ll never make it’. Finding shelter just outside Sodom, literally and figuratively, Lot descends into the madness of drunken excess and depravity. His incestuous spawn, Ammon and Moab, ultimately disappear into a void of the once-was.

A Torah column later, a mountain appears again, resonating even to this day. ‘Abraham, elevate your son, Isaac on the mountain that I will show you.’ Without delay, Abraham and Isaac set out, step after step, into the unknown, guided only by the impulse to reveal Godliness in this world of ours. It was on the top of that mountain that father and son met their destiny, bequeathing to us a legacy of clear-headed, powerful devotion to the greatest of human aspirations: to become servants of Godliness.